How does "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" relate to learning guitar?

I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" decades ago (ugh) but I still remember the take-home message, which is that anything (even the art of motorcycle repair) can be understood and conquered if you look at it patiently, carefully, and in sufficient detail (I guess that's where the 'Zen' comes in). Which is something I might have done well to remember and apply to learning guitar___But did I mention I'm impatient?  Like to get things finished? Preferably yesterday?  Strange to say, this attitude doesn't seem to be working right now.   Time for a little introspection - there are a lot of skills (from sports to fly fishing) where initially you can charge right ahead and make good progress, and then you reach a plateau where however much you practice it doesn't seem to get any better.  I think I've reached this stage.  Although I can kind of play my pieces, they often fall apart in the same places and suffer from being 'hit or miss'. Often it takes 3 or 4 run-throughs before I finally make it. That's not 3 or 4 run throughs once.  It's each and every time I pick up the guitar.   

The solution, my long-suffering guitar teacher has told me (maybe a couple thousand times) is to work on small parts slowly.  I understand this.  And I do start slowly, walking through challenging sections  before speeding them up again.  Sometimes this works (especially if I don't charge right ahead with the 'fast' until I've done a LOT of 'slow'), but sometimes it doesn't.  Currently it seems more often than not.  What gives?

Perhaps I'm not looking at things in sufficient detail and the slow version is a 'fudge' that doesn't work when sped up.  It seems it's time for the 'Zen' approach.  In other words SUPER SLOW - so slow it doesn't resemble music any more. So slow that each individual finger movement (on both hands) can be analyzed in detail.  Does that finger need to hold on? Can it be released? When? Which finger(s) need to be prepared first for a difficult shift?  What sequence should the fingers go down in?

Oh man, this is tedious!  But wait - going super slow I just figured out how to stop that squeak (turns out I can release that single finger a little early, pick it up and place it back on the squeaky string while another finger holds an instant then slides on the nylon string.    And the gymnastics required for preparing that next note while holding the previous one? I can actually release a finger I had been needlessly holding, which gives me a little more freedom of movement.  And for that interval I keep missing, it turns out my hand is not moving back into position fast enough so I'm trying to fret it from an awkward position.  Far from being tedious, this super-slow stuff is engaging  -  a series of little puzzles to solve, and best of all, resulting in solutions!    Having figured out the solutions of course, the next step is to do lots of (regular) slow practice until the new movements stick in muscle memory. Only then do I get to see if I will actually start improving again.  I can't wait! (but I will.... 😉 )